TWO men have been found guilty for their part in a conspiracy to bring illegal drugs onto the streets of North Wales.

Karl Evans, 29, of Llys Nant and John Etheridge, 30, of Llys Arthur, both in Towyn, were warned they face jail terms when they return to court next month for sentence.

Eight other men, including gang leader John Gizzi, 39, of St George, Abergele, have already admitted conspiring to bring cocaine from Merseyside to the Conwy and Denbighshire area.

The jury at Caernarfon Crown Court heard police mounted a lengthy covert investigation from August 2009 until April last year.

During the investigation, codenamed Operation Thunder, detectives found drugs with a street value of £162,000 and seized nearly £70,000 in cash from two vehicles

Telephone traffic linked the 10 men to the conspiracy the jury heard.

Evans was described by the prosecution as Gizzi’s “right hand man” while Etheridge was seen driving two other gang members to Liverpool where a drugs pick-up was observed.

Barristers for the two men said their involvement was “coincidental”.

Evans, the jury heard, had simply allowed his phone to be used by other gang members to make calls.

Etheridge, his barrister said, had given the men a lift to Liverpool that day last April because one of the them was a disqualified driver.

Calls made from his mobile were not made by him, he argued.

The jury of six men and six women spent more than three hours discussing the evidence they had heard during the two week trial.

Announcing the unanimous guilty verdicts there were gasps from members of family in the public gallery.

Granting the two men bail while reports are prepared Judge Merfyn Hughes QC said: “Although your roles were different you were in on this conspiracy. Sentence will be adjourned but a sentence of imprisonment is quite inevitable.”

Gizzi and the other men – David Edward Clarke, 48, Kenneth Cain, 34, Neil Sutemire, 37, all of Liverpool, Derek Richards, 49, of Ocean View, Rhyl, Michael Bennett, 33 and Gregory Gorst, 27, of Towyn and Christian Suckley, 27, of Ffordd Nant, Kinmel Bay will also be sentenced next month.